Steve was impressed. He'd known that Bucky was a good fighter and tactician, but he hadn't realized just how skilled he was. The more they planned the more Bucky seemed to relax into the role, acting less like the Winter Soldier and more like Bucky. It was less than an hour later they found themselves outside the Triskelion. Their plan was fairly simple. He and Tony would be led by Bucky to the coding rooms while the others, split into two teams, created a series of distractions and tried to keep the HYDRA agents occupied elsewhere. Simple, and hopefully effective.
"Ready, Buck?" Steve asked and Bucky nodded once. His expression shifted back into a very similar neutrality to the one the Winter Soldier had. Steve was concerned for a moment but then an explosion went off near them, followed by several more in rapid succession leading away. Bucky bolted forward immediately and covered the ground of the small footbridge quickly, while Tony and Steve lagged a little behind.
It didn't matter in the end because Bucky took down every enemy on the bridge long before they got close. Red Skull must have changed Bucky's stats because he had not been nearly this strong before. They caught up to him just as he pressed his metal hand to the door. There was a flash, a reaction to a spell that had been placed and it opened when he pushed it. "Come on." Bucky insisted as he held the door open with his metal hand.
Steve ducked inside first and scanned for enemies; there was only one whom Steve took out easily enough with a strike from his shield. Tony joined him and then the door shut behind the three of them. "You doing okay, Buck? How's your health?" Steve asked as the enemy he'd defeated disappeared.
"I'm fine." Bucky answered flatly before he started walking, moving to another door. "Follow me, and don't touch anything if you can avoid it. Especially the doors." He warned before he pushed the next metal door open with his left hand. He let Steve and Tony into the stairwell but wove past them to lead the way down. Tony minimized most of his suit (he left his chest, forearms, and hands covered by the armor) and Steve guarded their backs.
The stairwell was oddly empty and quiet as they traveled down. There were a couple of traps, easily avoided at Bucky's direction or disable by him. But no enemies. Either this stairwell was just routinely empty, which made a certain sort of sense because why would there be NPC's here? Or their distraction was working better than planned, which was just fine in Steve's book. They had hurried down maybe twenty flights of stairs before reaching the bottom floor.
Bucky stepped forward to open the door but paused. "There are enemies here so be prepared. And you should know: there are more trigger words that can turn me back into the Winter Soldier. I don't know if they'll have the time to say them all or if there will even be a handler who can, but if it happens don't hold back against me. Swear you won't, because chances are I won't be holding back either." Bucky insured.
"I won't." Tony agreed right away but even when Bucky's eyes fell on him, Steve faltered. He wasn't sure that was a promise he could keep. But Bucky didn't let up, staring him down until he finally nodded.
"Thank you. Ready?" He asked and Tony quickly summoned the rest of his suit while Steve adjusted his grip on his shield, then they nodded. Steve moved to take point, putting Tony behind him. Bucky nodded back once then pushed the door open.
Steve charged forward and knocked down two enemies before the bullets started flying. They were in a circular room with a smaller circular building in the middle. There were quite a few enemies and Steve felt bad for taking them out, but since they all shattered like NPC enemies Steve just hoped they weren't players in disguise. Tony, as the flying one among them, focused on the upper level catwalk while Steve and Bucky took out the enemies on the ground, looping around the central structure in opposite directions.
Steve heard a few of the enemies try to talk to Bucky, some in English and some in another language, but it was obvious by the anger on his face that none of it had been the trigger words. Or if it had been they didn't work. It took them less than three minutes to take down everyone in the room and meet up on the other side of the central building. There was another metal door there, this time heavier than before.
"Alright, Buck, what's next?" Steve asked.
"In there." Bucky grabbed the door, but rather than opening on it's own Bucky started pulling on it. The metal cradled loudly as the deadbolts were slowly forced through the surrounding concrete and finally came free, sending Bucky stumbling a little by the force, but he didn't fall. Just pulled the door open the rest of the way. "Go." He ordered and Tony hurried inside. He stepped out of his suit once he was sure there were no enemies there and set it to sentry mode.
Steve paused in the doorway when he realized Bucky hadn't moved from where he was catching his breath after ripping the door free. "Buck, come on." Steve said but Bucky shook his head.
"Can't. Programming won't let me enter. I'll stand guard." He promised, and he looked sincere.
Steve frowned as he hated the idea of leaving Bucky alone and was about to say something when Tony interrupted. "Steve, I need you." He insisted. Steve faltered for a moment but Bucky nodded towards Tony and adjusted the grip on his gun.
"Go, I got this." He promised.
"Call if you need help." Steve ordered and Bucky rolled his eyes, a somewhat playful smile on his face.
"Okay, now go." He insisted. Steve ducked into the room and settled next to Tony. The walls were lined with computer screens showing data, lines of code and numbers and most of it was moving too quickly for Steve to catch more than bits and pieces.
"What do you need?" Steve asked and Tony pointed at a screen with relatively stable text compared to the others.
"See that screen? I need you to read information off for me when I ask." Tony instructed. Steve did as instructed, listing off numbers or lines of code as Tony asked for them.
They were there for a short minute and a half before Steve heard gunshots from just outside. "Bucky…" he pulled away from the station to help but Tony caught his arm.
"I need you more, Steve." Tony insisted and Steve swallowed but nodded. Bucky hadn't said anything and hadn't moved from his post just outside the door, so Steve turned back to the screen.
The status quo remained just like that for another four minutes, Steve feeding Tony lines as the man typed rapidly and all the while he could hear gunshots in the background. They finally petered off and Steve glanced at the door. Bucky looked fine as he examined the surrounding room for any hidden enemies. Steve was about to say something when a new voice suddenly echoed into the space, like someone speaking over an intercom.
"Well, captain, it seems the regular enemies won't do. It is an honor to finally meet you, so to speak." The voice said. It had an accent, a German one.
"Zola." Bucky muttered, just loud enough Steve caught it.
"Zola? I thought he was a character?" Steve questioned as he tightened his grip on his shield, keeping an eye on the door more so than the screen.
"You were led to believe so, captain, but I assure you; I am real. It was my very real work that created Sergeant Barnes and the Winter Soldier." Zola informed him and Steve suddenly really wanted to break something. "Of course, I knew the Sergeant would never make a believable character with his real memories still intact, but I underestimated his brain. I did not expect him to be able to recall Sergeant Barnes' memories so well as the Winter Soldier."
"What do you want?" Steve demanded.
"To continue my work, of course. And for that, Nicholas Fury must die." Zola answered. "Now, you can finish the job yourself or simply stay out of the Winter Soldier's way, but if your friend doesn't stop his typing I promise you will regret it."
Tony's typing paused at that. "How? We're safe in here, from you and from any NPC's you send our way." Tony reminded and Zola chuckled.
"Correct, Mr. Stark. You are. The soldier however…" Zola trailed off, but his threat didn't need to be completed as Bucky dropped to his knees with a pain cry. Steve moved to help him, but was stopped by Bucky holding up a hand.
"Don't!" The word was desperate and pleading. "He can't get you in there. I'm fine." Bucky promised through grit teeth.
He didn't look or sound fine as he stayed on his knees panting, but his hand was still up. Keeping Steve from passing the doorway despite the fact they weren't touching. "Bucky…" Steve didn't think he could handle seeing Bucky die again.
A hand landed on his arm and he jumped. It was Tony, keeping him from leaving the room. "Do you trust me?" Tony asked quietly and Steve slowly nodded. Tony let him go and pressed a button on the keyboard. Immediately the power went out everywhere outside their room, but more concerning was Bucky. The brunet had crumpled, unconscious, and then flickered out of existence.
"What did you do?" Steve demanded sharply, his anger fueled by panic.
"A forced logout of everyone in the game, except for us." Tony answered and Steve let out a small breath of relief. Bucky was fine; he'd just been logged out.
"A clever trick, Mr. Stark, but it would be easy for me to return the soldier to the game." Zola said and Tony scoffed.
"Do you take me for an idiot? I shut down all login attempts until further notice. And the only ones who could access the code to change it back are me, right here and now, and Nick Fury himself. Because Red Skull may have taken control of the game, but it's still SHIELD's game." Tony countered. Zola practically snarled but Tony looked very smug. "Good bye." Tony added brightly before he pressed another button and Steve was logged out.